Former CBS News anchor Katie Couric on Monday called out the new leadership at her old network after CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss abruptly yanked a “60 Minutes” segment on the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador.
“This is the kind of censorship journalists at CBS feared,” wrote Couric, once a part-time “60 Minutes” correspondent, in a post to her Instagram page. “It’s appalling but not surprising. And now it’s happening — what a disgrace.”
After Paramount-Skydance absorbed Weiss’ Free Press newsletter and picked her as the network’s news chief, Couric warned that the move would be “compromising independent journalism,” The New York Post reported.
Couric was also among a sea of critics who criticized CBS and its leadership in the months since Paramount agreed to pay President Donald Trump $16 million to settle his lawsuit against “60 Minutes.” The settlement occurred ahead of Paramount’s merger with Skydance, which required the Trump administration’s approval.
In remarks at the Gracies Leadership Awards in New York last month, Couric said she was “mortified” that Trump “basically extorted” CBS so the merger would go through. She made a nod to the chilling effects of the merger on Monday, writing: “This is what happens when network owners are beholden to an administration for their business transactions.”
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Weiss, who has defended her decision to pull the segment at the last minute, reportedly claimed in an internal call that “60 Minutes” simply needed to “do more” on the story.
According to The Washington Post, Tanya Simon, executive producer of “60 Minutes,” told staffers on Monday that she “ultimately had to comply” despite her and her colleagues pushing back in defense of their reporting.
Veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who reported the segment, slammed Weiss’ decision and stressed in an internal email that the story was factually correct and had already gone through “every rigorous internal check.”
